Comments on: Woman of the Sea

By: Tony Wu

Tony Wu — Tue, 03 May 2011 23:46:00 +0000

Hi Linda,

I had not seen either of these. Thanks for the links!

Cheers,

Tony

By: Linda

Linda — Tue, 03 May 2011 18:13:00 +0000

Have you seen Jolie Bookspan’s posts about the Ama divers?

http://www.healthline.com/blogs/exercise_fitness/2009/07/amasan-japanese-diving-women.html

Someone is making a documentary about them, too:

http://shootingpeople.org/watch/film.php?film_id=78576

By: Tony Wu

Tony Wu — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 04:25:00 +0000

Hi Carrie,

I don’t know for sure. The term “Ama” is a generic one, and there are slightly different traditions from area to area. It sounds a bit unlikely that women would dive with babies on their backs. But who knows?

Cheers,

Tony

By: Davemill

Davemill — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 11:50:00 +0000

Hi tony, my Grandfather who was born in Japan and lived there for some years (an Englishman) told me that the Ama women dived for oysters with their babies strapped to their backs. Is this true?
Carrie

By: Sara

Sara — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:58:26 +0000

Hi Tony
Thank you so much for this. I am researching Ama divers to make a programme about them – particularly if they are a dying breed. I hold four world records in freediving and am keen to become as close to them as possible and learn their trade to make my programme on them as sensitive and understanding as possible – really feel what they go through. Atsumaru-san’s work isn’t freediving but I would still be interested in knowing more about these amazing people – anything you can share with me on private email would be extremely gratefully received.
Beautiful photography too, by the way. I’m hoping to be in Japan in July
x
Sara

By: Sara

Sara — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:58:00 +0000

By: Tony

Tony — Fri, 08 May 2009 02:38:53 +0000

I’m not sure how many Ama are left, but I’m quite sure there aren’t many, and the number is dwindling rapidly. There are some at tourist attractions, but I don’t count them. I don’t think there are any Ama schools, or at least I’ve never heard of anything like that

By: Tony

Tony — Fri, 08 May 2009 02:38:00 +0000

By: Ivan (aka Wishbone)

Ivan (aka Wishbone) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 08:07:52 +0000

That was one of the best readings I had in a long time…
You are lucky to be able to meet such extraordinary creature of the sea.
I believe Atsumaru-san deserves a full scale documentary. But only if you make it…

By: Ivan (aka Wishbone)

Ivan (aka Wishbone) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 08:07:00 +0000